Fish waste becomes octopus food as farms expand amid captivity concerns

Fish waste becomes octopus food as farms expand amid captivity concerns

Source: Reuters

3/18/2022

Fish waste becomes octopus food as farms expand amid captivity concerns

When Mexican biologist Carlos Rosas dips his hand into the water of a large open-topped tank and brings it to the surface, there is a tiny purple baby octopus, no bigger than a tennis ball, in his palm. It squirms and slithers before slipping from his hand back into the tank, the only home it has ever known.

This octopus, along with about 250 others, lives in captivity as part of a community project in Sisal, a fishing community in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, that started 15 years ago as a women’s collective.

With guidance from Rosas, a professor at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), the small octopus farm developed a patented food for the highly intelligent cephalopods. The farm expanded, now employing older fishermen and their wives, offering a way to earn money back on land when the grueling work at sea becomes too much.